


Temporary Messes

by rycbar123



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Bruises, Frat Boy Erwin, Frat Boy Levi, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 14:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4832498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rycbar123/pseuds/rycbar123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi hates messes but loves bruises; they're temporary messes that tell stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Temporary Messes

When it came to messes, Levi was always the first to volunteer to clean them up. Sure, he hated getting messy himself, but he would rather get a little messy - something that was easy to clean up - than watch an even bigger mess just sit there until someone finally deemed it worthy of their attention. He was usually the one in his fraternity house to do all of the chores; sweeping, vacuuming, doing the dishes, making sure all of the Brothers did their laundry to the entire House wouldn’t get a weird odor to it. Sigma Kappa was branded the cleanest frat house every year since Levi had started living in it, and that wasn’t about to change.

 

Levi Ackerman hated messes of every kind, but, for some odd reason, he loved bruises. He was absolutely fascinated by them. Usually, when he got a cut or a scrape or something of the like, he couldn’t stand the sight of it. But there was just something else about the yellow and purple of a dark bruise on his pale skin that he loved. Not just on himself, either, he loved bruises on other people. Pale people, dark people, tan people, everyone in between. Bruises always told a story, much like scars did, and bruises were temporary. Cuts, scrapes, they left scars, but bruises, they came and went. They would paint a beautiful picture on the wearer's skin, and then they would be gone forever, no trace they were ever even there to begin with.

 

No one in the House, not even Levi’s closest friends, knew about his fascination with bruises, and he wasn’t likely to tell them any time soon. It was a private thing. It had never been a sexual thing, of course, but Levi had never been able to control himself when his mouth was close to any expanse of unmarked skin, which is why, after having had a one-night stand with the president from one of the other fraternities, Levi had let the guy stay in his room the night. The bruises that were blooming on his neck and clavicle were gorgeous; he wanted time to memorize them with his fingertips when he woke up the next morning.

 

“Won’t your brothers care?” the guy asked. He was tall and blond and spoke in a clear, deep voice, his eyes bright and aware, as if he hadn’t drank enough to knock out half the school’s marching band the night before.

 

Levi shrugged, leaning closer to the guy and reaching a hand out to his neck, where the biggest of the marks lay. It was already dark purple, blue around the edges and yellow in the very center, all of it in the shape of the open O of Levi’s mouth. He traced over the mark, over where he could see the barely-there indention some of his teeth had left over the guy’s skin. It was beautiful. “They won’t say anything,” he assured him, looking up to meet his eyes before they dashed back down to seek out another mark. “I’m too valuable to them.”

 

The guy raised an eyebrow. Erwin, Levi remembered his name to be. He had met him a few times, at football games and fraternity mixers. “Is that so?” he asked around a laugh, his breath hitching as Levi’s fingertips trailed down his clavicle.

 

Levi nodded, prodding one of the bruises with a fingertip. He could feel Erwin’s pulse pounding beneath it. “I’m solely responsible for the upkeep of this House. If I were to leave, it would be unlivable within a week, I can assure you,” he said, rolling his eyes and trailing his fingers down to a mark on Erwin’s chest. He could almost hear Erwin raising an eyebrow.

 

“I believe you,” he said, and they both dropped into silence as Levi traced bruises with his fingertips then with his lips and tongue. It wasn’t a sexual thing, though Erwin did enjoy the feel of it. Neither one of them were hard, they just lay there in comfortable silence while Levi worked his way up and down the older man’s body, seeking out every mark he had made. There was one on his left side, made by his right hand; five little spots where his finger tips had dug into his skin. He fitted his hand over them and smiled, applying the slightest pressure to them before moving on.

 

“Levi Ackerman,” Erwin said some time later, his voice quiet and filled with something akin to wonder. Levi looked up from where he had been pressing a thumb over a particularly dark bruise, watching the skin lighten before darkening again. Bruises were fascinating. “Do you have a thing for bruises?”

 

Levi’s eyes shot up. He had had sexual partners look at him weird for poking at their bruises before, but he had never had anyone come right out and ask him about it. “It’s not a kink,” he said quickly, pulling his hand away from Erwin’s skin, leaning back to look at him. He blinked. “I’m not…”

  
He was at a loss for words. He didn’t know how to describe his fascination with bruises, didn’t think anyone would understand how they were a temporary mess that held meaning behind them, how every single mark, although not always placed with purpose, held a temporary story. People barely even understood Levi’s need for cleanliness; if they knew how much he loved bruises, they would never let it go.

 

Erwin smiled, pulled Levi back to him and reached a hand out, grabbing Levi’s wrist and pressing a dark mark he had accidentally left on him. Levi hadn’t noticed it until he felt the twinge of pain as Erwin pressed into it. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Levi,” was all he said, his voice quiet and understanding. Of course, Levi didn’t expect that to mean Erwin actually understood his fascination with bruised skin, but at least he understand it wasn’t an inherently sexual thing, and that’s all Levi really cared about.

 

He relaxed after that, and they spent the better part of the morning laying in bed, tracing each other’s bruises. At one point, Levi got up to use the restroom and stared at his own reflection in the mirror, at the bruises that littered his chest and collar, the tiny, barely-there ones on his wrist, the one on his hip from where he had slammed it on his intable the night before in the rush to get him and Erwin naked. Levi bruised easily, he always had, and although it caused problems when he was younger - his teachers always feeling the need to call Child Protective Services on his parents, thinking they were abusing him - he had always loved it.

 

“So, did you have fun last night?” Erwin asked as he got dressed later that morning, pulling his sweater back over his head. The party the night before had been one of the frat’s annual Halloween parties and the weather had dropped lower than it had been all season. Levi, having been dressed in far too little to keep himself warm, had pulled Erwin - not dressed up at all, much to Levi’s dismay - back across Greek Row and to his room for the night.

 

Levi, sat on the edge of his bed, bent in half trying to retrieve a sweater from the dresser by his bed, froze, blinking, before looking up to meet Erwin’s grey eyes. He nodded once, curt. “Yes, I did. Thank you for cleaning up after yourself,” he said, then turned away to find his favorite sweater, his cheeks turning pink. He always thanked guys when they cleaned up their mess when they made one, and more oft than naught, they laughed at him for it.

 

Erwin didn’t. He just shrugged. “It’s not my place to leave a mess,” he said, as if it were that simple, and Levi smiled. Finally having found his sweater, he pulled it over his head and stood up, forgetting about his pants and walking over to Erwin. Probably more than an entire foot shorter than the other man, Levi’s height fell just below Erwin’s shoulders.

 

“It was a good night. Feel free to come back any time you want,” he said, giving him a quick kiss, his fingertips skirting over where he knew a few bruises lay, then he pushed him in the direction of the door. “Now go. We have pledges coming in to scrub the kitchen in half an hour and I don’t need them getting any ideas and deciding to pledge you.”

 

Erwin laughed, leaning back against the hands on his back that ushered him toward the door. “Fine, fine. I’m leaving. And I’d never take pledges from you guys. After PiSig’s Rush, you guys are gonna need all the pledges you can get.”

 

Levi rolled his eyes at the joke, giving a small laugh before saying one last goodbye and shoving Erwin out of his room, closing the door behind him. Erwin knocked on it once, laughing loudly, before jogging down the stairs and toward his own House, hopefully before any of Levi’s Brothers could see him. Levi smiled and went to flop back on his bed.

 

Half an hour later, his phone buzzed with a text from an unsaved number.

 

_is tomorrow night too soon?_

 

Levi locked his phone and tossed it across his bed, laughing. Erwin fucking Smith.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i??? dont know???? bruises are cool.


End file.
